1)

What caused the people to sin?

1.

Rashi (citing Shabbos, 89a): Moshe told them that he would return at the end of forty days within six hours. They counted from the day that he ascended, the seventh of Sivan, and expected him to return on the sixteenth of Tamuz. When he did return when he said he would, they assumed that he had died - Refer to 32:1:2:1. In fact, Moshe meant forty full days and nights, 1 which terminated on the seventeenth of Tamuz. 2


1

Rashi: Which did not include the day he ascended.

2

Rashi: They did not merely err about the hour due to clouds, for Moshe returned only on the following day, and not just an hour or two later.

2)

What are the conotations of "Ki Bosheish Moshe"?

1.

Rashi (citing Targum Onkelos ) and Targum Yonasan): It means 'The people saw that Moshe had delayed'.

2.

Shabbos, 89a: "Bosheish" is the acronym of 'Ba'u Sheish' - 'six hours had arrived'. 1


1

See Torah Temimah, note 1.

3)

What did the people actually see?

1.

Rashi (citing Shabbos, 89a): Refer to 32:1:1:1*. On the sixteenth of Tamuz, the Satan displayed an image of darkness, blackness and confusion, and showed them an image of Moshe being transported across the sky, 1 conveying the impression that Moshe had died 2 and was not destined to return.


1

See Ba'al ha'Turim DH 'Ki Bosheish Moshe' and DH 'Ki Zeh Moshe ha'Ish'. This is slso hinted in Targum Yonasan. See Peirush Yonasan.

2

According to Targum Yonasan, they thought that he must have got burned by celestial fire (See Na'ar Yonasan).

4)

Why did the people approach Aharon and not Chur - whom Moshe appointed to be in charge together with Aharon?

1.

Oznayuim la'Torah: This bears out Chazal who say that they killed Chur when he rebuked them for worshipping idols - since the Pasuk does not mention it specifically.

5)

What did the people want from Aharon?

1.

Rashi: They wanted a god to lead them, to replace Moshe, who had led them out of Egypt, who would now lead them in his stead.

2.

Ramban and Rashbam: They wanted some sort of leader 1 to replace Moshe as the medium between Hashem and Yisrael. 2

3.

Da'as Zekenim and Rosh: They wanted a judge 3 (Hadar Zekenim - and leader) in place of Moshe, 4 and not a deity. 5 .


1

Terafim (fetishes), according to the Rashbam (Refer to Bereishis, 31:19:1:1).

2

Ramban: They would readily have accepted Moshe back in the event that he returned - as indeed they ultimately did.

3

Riva: Who is called Elohim, like we find in Mishpatim, 22:8 "Ad Elohim Yavo Devar Sheneihem ... asher Yarshi'un Elohim..." and in 22:27 "Elohim Lo Sekalel" (PF).

4

Da'as Zekenim and Rosh: And the Pasuk in Tehilim 106:20 "Va'Yamiru es Kevodam be'Savnis Shor" means that they switched Moshe, through whom Hashem did many miracles, for it. Rosh: In fact, we can explain the entire Parshah, that they intended to honor Moshe

5

Da'as Zekenim and Rosh: And they bowed down to it to honor it, not to worship it. Riva: This is difficult, since the Pesukim and Rashi imply that they intended to worship it. Moreover, the Midrash Tanchuma states that Chur was Moser Nefesh when Yisrael wanted to serve idols.

6)

Why did the people ask Aharon to make them 'gods' (in the plural) to go before them?

1.

Rashi: Because they desired a selection of gods, 1 Not just one.

2.

Ramban: Because they were not sure what to ask for, whether it was an ox, a lamb or a goat or some other creature.


1

See Sifsei Chachamim citing Gur Aryeh). The Ramban objects to this explanation, seeing as it was not Hashem who had gone missing and whom they now wanted to replace, but Moshe (as Rashi himself explains). See Ramban. The Oznayikm la'Torah however, explains, that such is the way of people to exaggerate - When a Gadol leaves town, they claim that only Hashem can replace him!

7)

Why did they insert the word "Ki Zeh Moshe ha'Ish", implying that they could see him?

1.

Rashi: Refer to 32:1:3:1.

8)

Why did they refer to Moshe as "ha'Ish"

1.

Oznayim la'Torah: Because it was not Moshe who gave them the Torah - whose ways they had now rejected - that they missed, but Moshe the 'Ish Milchamah' who had fought with Par'oh and who had taken them out of Egypt.

9)

Bearing in mind the high level that Yisrael had attained before the Chet ha'Eigel "Ani Amarti Elohim atem!", why did Hashem allow the Satan to trap Yisrael into sinning so dramatically? Why did He not announce 'Hizaharu be'Yisrael u've'Torah she'Kiblu!' like he did regarding R. Meir and R, Akiva - (See Kidushin, 81a)?

1.

Oznayim la'Torah: Because Ba'alei Teshuvah would learn from Yisrael of that time that it is possible to do Teshuvah after sinning, as the Gemara states in Avodah-Zarah, 4b 'Yisrael only made the Golden Calf in order to encourage Ba'alei Teshuvah'. 1


1

Rashi: Who will learn from those who worshipped the Golden Calf, whose Teshuvah was accepted, that the option of Teshuvah exists.

QUESTIONS ON RASHI

10)

Rashi writes that Moshe was on Har Sinai for forty days, excluding the day he ascended (the seventh of Sivan). If that is so, he must have descended on the eighteenth of Tamuz. But the Gemara in Ta'anis, 28b states that he broke the Luchos on the seventeenth?

1.

Rashi (according to Gur Aryeh) and the Riva: The latter part of the seventh of Sivan, on which Moshe ascended, combined with the night and morning of the seventeenth of Tamuz,to comprise forty full days. 1

2.

Those who explain that the first and last days do not count hold that Matan Torah took place on the sixth of Sivan,in which case twenty-four full days remained in Sivan (which had thirty days) and sixteen in Tamuz - and Moshe descended on the seventeenth (PF).


1

The Moshav Zekenim, in 24:18 left this question difficult, because he assumes that the first day did not count at all (PF).

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